I know, I'm already posting and I just posted last night! But last night I was on the phone with a friend recounting the events of the day and realizing just how incredibly thankful I was! Then I read Nicole's post about being thankful, and I just wanted to share the things that happened yesterday that I was so thankful for!Laughter. Nicole went with me to the endodontist so that we could run by the mall after my procedure and look at more frames for her and check prices at the 2 eyeglass places in the mall. Well, as you can imagine, I was talking pretty funny with one side of my face pretty much dead, and I was looking pretty funny, too. So I had to have her do all the talking at the eyeglass places we went to. One of the places the guy kept looking at me even though she was talking, so I finally told him I had had a root canal and that's why I wasn't talking much. He literally backed away and said he would leave us alone, like I had something contagious!! Nicole and I walked out of there and burst out laughing, which made me look even funnier, which made us laugh harder! We then stopped by the health food store, and while I was in the check out line the guy in front of me was talking to the clerk but was looking at me. He reached into his wallet to pull out his card to give me, and I thought he said something about being a lawn guy. So I meant to respond with, "Oh, I don't own my own home", but I ended up saying, "Oh, I don't have a home" which made me sound pathetically homeless. He looked at me funny and said he owns a salon and does hair and liked my hair (I got lawn and salon mixed up!). So then I told him my neighbor cuts my hair like every 3 months, whether I need it or not. I hadn't realized I had just said I was homeless but had a neighbor! Plus one side of my face was still dead, so I can only imagine how I looked. Nicole & I got another great laugh out of that!

No pain after the novacaine wore off!! Can you believe it?? I'm still amazed! I was able to drink water last night with no pain! I was able to rinse my mouth after brushing my teeth with no pain! I had forgotten what that would feel like!My credit union requires a form to be filled out in order to transfer money into your health savings account, which I wanted to use to pay for my procedure. Since my HSA uses a debit card, I needed the funds available in order to use the card. I tried to call the one guy who processes the forms yesterday morning, and at first I was told he wasn't in. But then I was told he was, and they transferred me to his phone, where I got his voicemail. I left him a message letting him know I needed the money transferred within the next couple of hours to pay for a root canal and asking if he could please call me back, not really expecting much. Well he called back like 15 minutes later saying his wife is going through tooth problems herself with a cracked tooth and wanted to do whatever he could to help me! Wasn't that awesome?! He stayed on the phone while I scanned and emailed him the form so he could be sure he could transfer the money right away. There's so much more I'm thankful for, but this is getting long and I have to get started on my day. I just wanted to give thanks to God for His tender loving care. Blessings!

Tim & Jodie

Tim and Jodie have been married since Nov. 5, 1988. Tim is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and retired city of Tampa Firefighter. Jodie is a happily laid off IBM/AT&T 21 yr veteran employee turned stay-at-home home-schooling mom (say that fast three times!). She works very part-time for a local Christian author and speaker. They have four wonderful children: triplets Nathan, Nicole, and Noah born 11/16/97 and Nicholas born 5/16/99.